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Two Texas men charged with a-smashin' and a-grabbin' their way across the Boston area last year

A pair of men from Dallas are charged with using a sledgehammer and wrecking bars to smash their way into six convenience stores and gas stations in Mattapan, Dorchester, Brockton, Cambridge, Everett, Stoughton and Woburn during a two-day spree last May, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports - adding additional people are still being sought.

Fredrick Williams, 29, is scheduled for arraignment today on six counts of breaking and entering at night with intent to commit a felony, breaking into a depository and malicious destruction of property; four counts of larceny over $250; two counts of attempted larceny over $250; three counts of larceny of a motor vehicle; and one count of possession of burglarious instruments. Matthew Gallagher, 32, is scheduled for arraignment on the same charges tomorrow.

It was not all work and no play for the men on their trip, the DA's office reports: They managed to take in a Celtics/Cavaliers game at the Garden. While in the Boston area, they stayed at the Beantown Inn in Braintree.

According to the DA's office:

Williams and Gallagher are charged as part of a group that stole a van in Woburn in the early morning hours of May 18 and then broke into two businesses, damaging an ATM and stealing a safe from an Everett gas station and fleeing a Cambridge gas station after triggering an alarm. The group then stole a second van in Mattapan and broke into a Dorchester gas station, attempting to pry open two safes but fleeing when an alarm sounded. In the early morning hours of May 19, they allegedly took part in the theft of a third van in Stoughton and break-ins at three convenience stores in Brockton, where they stole two store safes and two ATMs. At all of the locations, the burglars used large wrecking bars and a sledgehammer to pry or open locked depositories.

During the course of the investigation, police and prosecutors obtained security video from each of the various locations, car rental information linking the defendants to vehicles seen in that video, records documenting the purchase of the wrecking bars and sledgehammer near the scene of the first vehicle theft, phone and cell tower records, records of the defendants’ travel through Logan Airport, and additional evidence.

According to the DA's office, the Mattapan van theft occurred at Mildred Avenue and Norfolk Street, and that they used the van to drive over to the Speedway at 201 Gallivan Blvd. in Dorchester, where they fled after an alarm went off.